Do you like the name "Golden Wyvern Adept"?

[resistor]

I hate it. Absolutely hate it.

I don't like most of the new flavor that seems to be coming in 4e, including the new wizard traditions. I'd willing to put up with it if it were nothing but flavor, but here we see it start to impugn on game mechanics.

"But you can just rename the feat!"

To all the people saying that: have you EVER played with people who aren't dedicate to the game, with people who don't memorize the rules? It's hard enough to get them to remember the names of their abilities when the character sheets say the same things as the books.

There needs to be a clear distinction between things that are meant for characters and things that are meant for players. It's fine and dandy for an in-character wizard to consider himself a Golden Wyvern Adept (if the Golden Wyverns happen to exist in the setting), or for a fighter to train for months to perfect his Dragon Tail Cut. But those are flavor. Mechanically, they should be described "Spellshaping Adept" and "Forceful Blow," or something that is suggestive to the players of the feat's function as well as SETTING NEUTRAL.

I like a lot of the rules changes that have been proposed for 4e, but I have no plan to change the flavor of my campaigns to fit the "new" flavor. If they make the new default setting/flavor assumptions too integral to the new edition, I won't buy it, whether or not I like the rule changes: it's not worth my time to work out the replacement flavor and to train my players to ignore what it says in the book.

 

[I'm A Banana]

I don't really mind it.

However, it is possible to have an evocative name that still gets across the idea of "omitting areas from an area effect."

Call it, say, "Safety Bubble Magic" or "Swirling Spells" or "Ally-Friendly Arcana" or "Careful Blast" or something.

Perhaps the core rules will suggest Golden Wyvern spellcasters exhibit special control over their magic.

But with just that feat information, it seems....odd, to say the least. I'd expect a Golden Wyvern Adept to do something....golden and wyvern-y. Wizard magic with bubbles in it doesn't really evoke any kind of idea of anything golden or wyvern-y.

 

[pawsplay]

Either wyverns have gotten a huge overhaul, or that name is just completely arbitrary. Also, it sounds kind of Shadowrun, but without the street cred.

 

[HeavenShallBurn]

Either wyverns have gotten a huge overhaul, or that name is just completely arbitrary. Also, it sounds kind of Shadowrun, but without the street cred.

Sounds more like an attempt to imitate the style of Exalted's Charms using a random generator filled with "fantasy" words to create the names.

 

[Oldtimer]

But again what if we translated it into 3e speak and it became:

Adept [Golden Wyvern]

Prerequisites
Member of the Golden Wyvern Order.

Effect
You can omit a number of squares from the effects of any of your area or close wizard powers. This number can’t exceed your Wisdom modifier.

Normal
Your friend in your blast radius is SOL.

1. It's not written that way. It does not mention "the Golden Wyvern Order" at all.

2. Even if there is a game mechanic named "Golden Wyvern" in the rules, that in it self is equally bad. It evokes nothing that helps remembering what an Adept of that mechanic can do.

This is just fanciful names for their own sakes. It will not help players and DMs remember what the mechanic does. It's almost as bad as naming the feats Feat01, Feat02, etc.

 

[Stalker0]

I'm not a fan of these new names either.

For those talking about "just changing the names" there's a big difference between named mechanical flavor and background flavor.

An example: The new races preview talks about how most dwarves live under mountains and elves in the forest.

That's flavor, however, there's nothing in the word Elf that means I live in the forest, afterall, the race is not called "Forest Elves". I can call myself an elf and be from anywhere with any story I want.

When I say I'm a "Golden Wyvern Adept" that is flavor, but its flavor that's hard to get away from as it also means I'm utilizing certain mechanics. Just as a player might say "I power attack for 10" a player might also say "I'm using Golden Wyvern Adept to remove the spell from my allies".

He could of course call it whatever he wants, but then that confuses others who hear it.